Friday, September 26, 2008

Thank you all for being so supportive about my disastrous bread. I learned that KJ and Jenjen, two of my favorite bloggers, did not have any luck with this recipe either. And Syrie, tks for the suggestion of leaving Jamie a message – it had crossed my mind, but I thought I was being too childish... :)

With all the info I have received from you and from the people who read my blog in Portuguese, I ended up thinking that Jamie’s cooking recipes are great, but his baking recipes might not be all that. I say that because the complaints are about cakes and bread and not about pasta and salads.
Anyway, my new book has arrived and I am sure I’ll be baking some amazing bread this weekend. :)

I’ll offer you something savory today: a recipe adapted from here. I omitted the mushrooms just because I wasn’t in the mood for a grocery store trip. But even with this very simple sauce it was a good pasta dish – Joao had his gnocchi with tomato sauce and loved it.

I did have to use more flour than the amount called for in the recipe, but I believe it was the potatoes’ fault. Make sure you use potatoes that are suitable for gnocchi.

For gnocchi, bring potatoes to boil in a large saucepan, cook until tender (25-30 minutes). Drain, peel and pass through a potato ricer into a bowl while still hot. Beat in egg yolks and salt, add olives and flour and gently work mixture together. Turn onto a floured work surface and, using your hands, roll into 2cm-thick logs. Cut logs widthways into 1½cm pieces, pinch in the sides of each piece slightly and set aside.
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil, add gnocchi and simmer over medium heat until they float to the surface (2-3 minutes). Transfer to a tray to keep warm.
Heat olive oil and butter in a large frying pan, when butter starts to foam, add garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft (2-3 minutes). Add gnocchi, gently toss until coated, scatter with parsley, sprinkle with parmesan and serve immediately.

* I ended up using more flour because the dough was extremely soft
** I used garlic infused olive oil instead

22 comments:

I'm in love with the "plumpness" of these gnocchi Patricia! they look delicious. As for Jamie's recipes I hink his recipe testers are more to blame...I had a similar experience with some biscuits of his I made recently.

(Ahrrr! My connection failed when I submitted!!!)I love it when you bust one out for the olive oil and herb contingent :) I've yet to try making gnocchi, and you're already so well-versed in them! I can't think of the reason why I'm so afraid, when yours look so beautiful and delicious!

One thing I've learned is that all cookbooks are not perfect -- some publishers (and authors) test recipes very well, and others don't seem to test at all. So when a recipe doesn't work, I assume the fault is with the cookbook, not with me!

Hi Patricia,This dish looks delicious - I prefer clean flavours such as these, esp as the days get warmer. Your new bread book looks good - it will definitely be better than Jamie's baking recipes (I agree with you).